Saturday really a long day, thanks to leap second

In case Saturday seems to dragging along: It really is.
Saturday night will stretch longer by a second because it includes a “leap second.”

International timekeepers will add one more second at midnight universal time (which we Anglophiles call Greenwich Mean Time). So the official clock will flip from 11:59:59 to 11:59:60 before it hits midnight. This means there will be a 6:59:60 MDT.

Lots of things are involved, including Earth slowing down a bit from the tidal pull of the moon, and an atomic clock that may be a little fast.

Saturday’s adjustment will mark the 25th time a leap second has been added since the practice was initiated in 1972. The most recent leap second was inserted on New Year’s Eve of 2008.

Forecast Colorado is your place for the latest breaking weather news for Denver and Colorado, featuring the latest forecasts, road conditions and closures — with an occasional detour into meterological science, trivia and oddities.